Happy Endings
by deeplyshallow
Summary: While reading a fairytale to the young Liir, Elphaba reflects on her own life and its unhappy endings – post Fiyeraba oneshot, my first bookverse.


**I stayed up all night writing this so I hope you appreciate it! It's my first book verse and I was quite proud of it when I read it at 12:30 am, but then again, probably anything would have made me proud at that hour.**

**To be honest I'm not as confident with the book as I am with the musical and I think Liir is a bit out of character, so I would appreciate any reviews with suggestions and improvements.**

**Also I apologise if this conflicts with any information given in A Lion Among Men, as I can't seem to find it at any bookshop at the moment.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Wicked I would probably be able to get my paws on A Lion Among Men, grrrr (terrible puns intended)**

* * *

Sister Saint Aelphaba looked up sharply as light entered the small room. Sister Nanny knew this was as much of an invitation as she was going to get so she entered carrying the small boy and a book.

"Can you read to him?" She asked softly, "He wants a bedtime story."

"Isn't there anyone who likes children to read to him?" The green maunt snapped.

Sister Nanny sighed, "most of the maunts are busy and the ones that aren't can't read. Besides he likes you."

Elphaba knew this was a lie, there was sure to be lots of free maunts at this hour. She had long suspected the real reason the boy was enforced upon her but she wasn't quite ready to admit it, not even to herself, besides she might be wrong – as she had been for most of her life.

Elphaba studied the child, as the sister placed him next to her, looking for even a trace of Fiyero's handsome features. The child was chubby where Fiyero was this, his skin as pale as Nessa's while Fiyero's was – had been dark. The retched child wasn't even green!

The infant was growing impatient; he tugged at Elphaba's dress and pointed to the book.

"Are you sure you want a story?" Elphaba scowled at the tiny child, hoping yet to be spared from reading to the brat. The child, unperturbed, shook his head and tried to pick up the book. Well he was as stubborn as her, if that counted for anything.

"Very well, Liir is it?" she sighed, although she knew full well it was, the boy nodded.

"Let's get this over with then," what was the point of fairytales anyway? She had been raised without them, her father had always been too busy preaching and her mother was intoxicated most of the time, it had never done Elphaba any harm. How could fairytales convey a moral if they had a happy ending? In this world anyone who tried to do good ended up dead or broken and hurting the ones they loved, _like Fiyero and me_, she thought and then started to read because thinking of him hurt too much.

"Once upon a time there was a girl called Ella. Her mother and father loved her very much." _Lucky her, _thought Elphaba darkly but carried on reading.

"But her mother died when she was very young and her father remarried a wicked woman with two ugly and equally wicked daughters." _But how do we know if they were wicked? _Thought Elphaba, _is there a line between goodness and wickedness that they crossed, or were they born that way and thus forced to act accordingly, and in that case are they really wicked if they had no choice in the matter? _Another thought angered her _and why is the fact that the sisters are ugly have any relevance except to show that they are wicked, and why are the wicked presumed ugly and the ugly presumed wicked?_

Annoyed the story had stopped, Liir stomped his foot, suddenly drawn back into the real world, Elphaba rolled her eyes at him – for a moment back to being Elphie at Shiz, then the broken maunt kicked in and she sighed and continued.

"Soon after the marriage Ella's father died and her wicked stepmother forced her to work night and day, while she and her daughters lived in luxury." _Sounds no worse than being carted round Quadling hovels, by your own father, to show how the unnamed god could forgive even a freak like me, the burning swamp water always managing to seep through my water proof boots. _She reminisced bitterly, but glanced at the impatient boy and focused on the story.

"She was so tired when her chores were done that she would go to sleep in the fireplace. Her wicked stepsisters laughed at her and called her Cinderella – beats artichoke," she added under her breath.

"One night a ball was being staged for all the young ladies in the land as the prince was looking for a bride. The wicked stepmother and the ugly stepsisters were going but they wouldn't let Cinderella because they said she had too much work to do and she didn't have a dress. They left without her and poor Cinderella started to cry." _Oh poor, poor Cinderella, _thought Elphaba dryly, _how can anybody think of anything more tragic than poor little Cinderella not being allowed to go to the ball?_

"Suddenly, Cinderella's fairy godmother appeared, magiced the house clean, turned her rags into a beautiful ball gown and turned a pumpkin into a carriage to take her to the ball, but warned her that all her magic would wear off by midnight – which made cleaning the house pretty pointless," commented Elphaba. Honestly, the thought of a fairy godmother (if there ever had been such thing) and magic used for such trivialities would have made Elphaba burst into laughter, if she had had any left in her broken form.

"Cinderella entered the ballroom and immediately her beauty caught the handsome prince's attention. He asked her to dance and instantly she felt complete in his arms…" Elphaba's voice broke, and suddenly, she was just Fae coming back from a failed mission to find blood everywhere – his blood.

Liir wailed, annoyed by the lack of attention. Elphaba glanced at him, their eyes met, and she stared. She had only seen those eyes on one other person, they were the eyes of the one person who had both given her a heart and broken it, they were the eyes of the man who had died because of her.

Elphaba flicked through the remaining pages of the book; suddenly unable to face the soppy happy ending, she snapped the book shut and turned to the expectant Liir.

"But the prince's parents wouldn't allow him to marry a commoner like Cinderella, so her married someone else and Cinderella had an affair with him. They got caught and he got murdered because of her and everyone suffered, especially Cinderella, because life isn't fair. The End." She finished, her harsh voice returning.

It was only when she heard a whimper on the floor that she realised Liir was still there. She wondered, for a second, if she should have ended the infant's story on such an unhappy note. No, she was right, she decided, it was immoral to raise children in the habit of hope in a world that had none.

Liir was oddly subdued when Sister Nanny returned to pick him up. Elphaba had a feeling that she wouldn't be asked to read to him again. Even so, when those familiar dark eyes looked at her, she acted on a sudden impulse and for a second the green hand grasped the pale.

***

A green hand was grasping Liir now, drawing him from his oldest memory.

"Daddy, story," the small green girl insisted again with every ounce of her father and grandmother's stubbornness. Liir looked around, although he already knew that there were no books in the old farmhouse. He would have to make a story up then, it was a shame he had almost no imagination. He would have told his daughter Cinderella except he had never found out the real ending.

"OK, let's get this over with," he sighed, resigned to making up some silly tale to make the second green girl happy.

"Once upon a time there was a girl called… Elphaba," he blurted out shocking himself, but now he started he couldn't stop, "she was green."

"Like me," the tiny child whispered.

"Yes darling," smiled Liir, patting the small child on the head, "just like you. But in those days there were lots of mean people who didn't like her green skin and the worst of these was a very evil man called the Wizard. He forced Elphaba to run away from home and she was very scared," from what Liir had actually heard the woman, whom he had found out was his mother only years after she had died, had chosen to run away on her own accord but considering the target audience the change was probably appropriate.

"While she was in hiding Elphaba met a very brave and handsome prince called Fiyero." Well the bit about Fiyero's personality was true, at least, according to a nine year old Nor.

"They fell in love, but then the Wizard found them and attacked them," slightly too late Liir realised if this girl was anything like his young self this was probably not the appropriate story to be telling her. He quickly altered the tale.

"Suddenly Fiyero, came and threw a bucket of water over him and the Wizard melted. The people of their country were so happy that they made Fiyero and Elphaba their king and queen and they all lived happily ever after."

"That was a nice story, Daddy," said the small girl smiling.

"Yes it is," said Liir, tucking his daughter in bed.

"Night Daddy," she whispered as he left the room.

Liir turned and smiled at the little girl, "night Fae."

Liir was still smiling as he sat down to get some rest for the day, looking after a little girl was so much work, but he was pleased with how his story turned out. He knew if the soul, that Elphaba always claimed she didn't have, was still alive she would be throwing a fit. But Liir didn't care, after all everyone deserved a happy ending once in a while.


End file.
